The Greatest Gift
3 Amens
The Greatest Gift!
Israel dancing and making a bucket load of noise because they learned God was their inheritance and everlasting reward.
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Ephesians 2:5 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.”
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
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Do you think responding to gifts is among the hardest things in the world!
It’s not just tricky but it’s quite a delicate procedure. When we do receive something we want to be enthusiastic but not over do it and look fake. When we get something that’s just completely unbelievable than we don’t really know how to act because we’re just stunned and yet we know the giver can’t see that our heats dancing like a jumping bean and so when we start to express it, it always seems fully put on!
I get paid out by my brothers because I'm known to be a little over the top. I just seem to always offer way too much at the precise moment of the great reveal.
“Oh wow, that’s unbelievable. I have never seen anything like it or ever received a gift so awesome…”
And so it goes on and on and on and on.
I’m just lost because I don’t seem to be able to express my gratitude in a sensible way. I only seem to have 2 speeds:
1. Off
2. Overdrive.
So if I make a conscience attempt to act little more relaxed I end up just throwing the gift aside and saying something like:
“Stupid thing. Whoever thought of giving someone something like that? It’s absurd; I can’t believe I have been insulted in this manner.”
There’s no middle ground.
And you can understand my conundrum. This predicament or maybe we’ll call it a disease I have only raises its ugly head twice a year: Birthdays and Christmases.
Birthday’s are the hardest because at Christmas everyone is receiving a gift so you can kind of go undetected and fly under the radar a bit, but at your birthday it’s only you, and everyone’s eyes are on you.
So how should you react when you receive a gift that just sucks? You know, that aunty, that you haven’t seen in 10 years shows up for Christmas and neglect to apply simple maths, so even though 10 years have passed since you saw her she doesn’t calculate that you might actually be 10 years older and gets you something you would have loved a decade ago. And as much as you want to applaud their effort you are struggling at that point of ‘the reveal’.
It may play out something like this: “oh wow a ninja turtle figurine. I have been overdue for one of these. Haven’t received one of these in; oh I don’t know, about 10 years. Thanks!”
Anyone else seem to find it difficult or are you all pro’s?
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So how would one act at the point of receiving the greatest gift in all eternity?
§ It’s worth more than all the gold in the universe.
§ It’s worth every dollar of every currency and so much more.
§ It’s worth more than fame, power and dominion put together.
§ It’s more precious than you can ever imagine EVER! You will never be able to get your mind around it. It is such an incredible gift that every time you stop and think about it your head just spins, a slight gasp escapes your mouth and almost without warning you let out a hearty woohoo!
And it's almost like when you 1st receive this gift you don’t really, completely know or understand what you’ve received but as you develop a greater understanding for this gift your heart should be jumping out of our chest cavity and doing summersaults all over the place. Your eyes should be as wide as saucers and even wider and you almost have to tilt your head back to keep the eye balls in. it’s such an incredible gift that you shouldn't be able to contain it till it spills over into everything you do everything you say everywhere you are.
It’s such an awesome gift that you should be getting caught, just sitting there, giggling to yourself. And when someone asks: “Are you alright?” and you try and answer you just explode in uncontrollable laughter that rises up out of your belly like the gushing of a waterfall.
People who don’t know you should be stopping you in the street asking you why you’re smiling so brightly and if it is the result of some substance can they find out where to get it.
It’s:
§ The ultimate antidepressant
§ The ultimate high
§ The ultimate jubilation
§ The greatest feeling ever!!!
It’s the very essence of the joy of the Lord and it truly is our strength. “Neh 8:10”
And it overrides personality. It supersedes what type of character you are. It prevails over your temperament.
The most tame, reserved and dull people on the planet get a little excited and begin to break their mould when they win the lottery or their footy team wins the flag yet this is totally incomparable with even that.
It’s better than a million lotteries…
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But we see quite the opposite take place.
The norm seems to be that as one matures as a believer they begin to settle down a bit and loose all that nonsense. They become much more peaceful as the years wear on and even take their toll and by the end people only want to get out of here because it’s just all too much: “AND WOULD SOMEONE KEEP THOSE YOUNG PEOPLE QUITE!”
This should never be the case. Christians shouldn't get more stale and placid as they grow in God they should become more unpredictable and, like a loose cannon, ready to explode any minute because they see more and more clearly what they have won. They get a closer look at this unimaginable gift.
The bible calls this gift salvation and in John 3:16 it says “For God so loved the world that He gave…”
It’s something that goes so far beyond escaping the agonies of hell and embracing the glories of a heaven.
Just getting excited at that and you become like those weirdoes who get excited at the box and the wrapping of a gift. It’s more than your healing and your freedom and that’s unreal but again it’s just the pretty wrapper and the cute shaped box.
Can you imagine some ignorant person picking up a pretty wrapped box and just celebrating how well it’s decorated? You’d want to slap them and say “Slow down cowboy, there’s actually something better inside that goes far beyond the silly wrapping.”
And to be honest this is when believers begin who create their own religion called wrapper religion. They look like the true believers and even act like true believers but when you scratch beneath the surface you soon learn that they aren’t seeking the God of the ages but simply the wrapper. They just want to be healed and set free, they just want to prosper and be healthy and happy. They just want their sins forgiven and to know that if they get hit by a bus they have the consolation price and solace of going to heaven.
To heaven this looks like someone getting excited over a cheeseburger wrapper. It can be folded up in the perfect shape of the real deal yet be empty. It smells like the tasty treat, looks like it yet go ahead and take a bite and you will very quickly realise it tastes nothing like what it promised. This is the main reason why people fall away from God. There is no substance to their relationship with God. If you are doing all this stuff just to secure yourself a seat in heaven I have news for you: You aren’t going to make it!
And if they don’t just quit it all they get sulky about it. This simple wrapper that someone once preached was the greatest prize of all time has become dull for them.
They received their blessing and it was good for a season but what next. These people can be found in churches all over the country having their little hissy fits and getting all stroppy about it.
The sounds of people discovering the greatest truths don’t excite them anymore but rather annoy them and it’s just all too loud and full of hype!
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But as the true believers peel back layer by layer, and encounter by encounter, discover that it's so much, much deeper than that.
It’s deeper than just healing though that’s awesome, deeper than just the gift of tongues though that’s unreal, so much deeper than blessing, though that’s so crazy.
Packed up inside that most majestic and marvellous and eternal gift is the One with eyes blazing and the voice of crashing waters and His name is Jesus Christ and He's your prize and your crown.
YOU GET HIM!
Now react as though you have just realised it and your mind has been utterly blown. Dance like a madman.
Party like you should in His presence. This is what had David and the whole nation of
2 Sam 6:13-14 “And so it was, when those bearing the ark of the LORD had gone six paces, that he sacrificed oxen and fatted sheep. Then David danced before the LORD with all his might; and David was wearing a linen ephod.”
They were marching the Ark of God’s presence back to it’s rightful place and David wouldn’t even let it go more than seven steps before he stopped everything and they had to revel and praise like there was no tomorrow.
Offerings were made like none had seen before. Than they would get on with the march and after six steps you could see David’s face just light up and he would start to chuckle to himself as though he had his own private joke and one more step than the band would erupt and people would jump like lunatics before this great and mighty God.
And so the joy of the Lord is my strength!!! Figure the joy of winning a grand final, a new car or what about the lottery and yet these things are nothing compared to our prize.
We have no idea of grace and what we've truly been rescued from!!! There should be none sad among us. We need to break out of our dummy sucking tantrum spitting mindsets and look above and thank Him eternally with tender affection that He chose us to be heirs of a kingdom we never deserve and He is becomes our inheritance.
Get a dummy… Wet your eyes with the water.
This is what so many Christians look like. Sucking their dummies and throwing tantrums about all they have to go through.
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Just try and picture it?
One day you’ll stand at the podium at the end of the race and you have run your heart out.
† Fleeing sin and temptation
† saving the lost
† praising His name all the way
And they (Angels) finally hand you your medal, crown, bouquet but there’s still something else....... Something that makes it all completely worth it. So worth it in fact you’d do it a million times over and a million times harder just to win It.
They scratch around and look nervously at each other. Though they’ve done it millions of times the ones presenting the prizes have never gotten used to this moment and they look at you than to each other than back at you smiles starting to brim over their faces thought you can see them trying to hold back. One asks the other: “Do you think he’s ready to receive this gift?” The other one says: “Who is?
“True.” The first one replies.
He looks at you and takes stock: “Ok, he’s got the crown of righteousness, the golden sash, the mansion that was prepared for him, only One thing left.”
As he finishes saying those words you see Him.
▪The One who breathed the stars into the midnight sky.
▪The One who knew you first.
▪The One who was, and is and is to come,
▪The Great I Am.
▪The Author and Finisher pf your faith.
▪The One who started this good work in you and has completed it.
▪The One who has kept you till this day and never let you ever out of His sight nor taken His mind off you.
It’s Jesus Christ Himself and as those who were offering you your prizes turn to see Him they crash to the ground before Him as though they were dead and shriek, not a cry, not shout, not yell, not sing, they shriek in absolute terror: “Holy.”
Those eyes burning hotter than a billion suns fix their gaze upon you and like the roaring of many waters crashing against a mountain the voice that called it all into being speaks to you and says: “Well done good and faithful servant, enter into the rest of the Lord.”
That’s it, this is your final prize: ‘HIM!’
Genesis 15:1 “Do not be afraid… I am your shield your exceedingly great reward.”
Oh what a Great Gift, what an understatement but such a Great Gift.
+ How can one respond to such love?
+ How can one respond to such a gift?
How else but to praise and worship Him with all you have and all you are. To live totally, absolutely devoted to Him and to run this race, not walk, but sprint you heart out.
30 Day D+L
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Craig C. Ireland
www.myspace.com/thehighvoltage
craig@impactcc.com.au
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